With the exception of clothing and
shelter as the basic necessities of life, food remains the most vital
because of its centrality to human existence. It is a known fact that the
ruthless expedition for food has shaped human history, provoking wars,
driving migration and underpinning the growth of nations. The recent
escalation of food prices call for sober reflection, owing to the fact
that the globe is facing a worsening food crisis period unseen in the last
30 years and the potential of leading to catastrophe. The discussion of
this vital issue has taken a centre stage among world leaders, thereby
increasing concern about the world’s ability to feed its 6.5 billion
people, to avert world-wide unrest and political instability as reported
in Egypt, Cameron, Burkina Faso, Cote d Ivoire, Senegal and Mauritania and
other nations.

As a result of this “Silent
Tsunami”, International organizations and individual countries have
embarked on aggressive food security crusade as the only option to remedy
the situation in order to make food affordable to all. The Food Security
Assessment in 2005 proves that over 750 million people were food insecure
in 70 lower countries. Both Asia and the Commonwealth of Independent
States experienced a 30 percent drop in the number of hungry people. The
number in Latin American and Caribbean has varied slightly over time, but
there has been a discernible trend across the region as a whole. Despite
the strong growth in food production, Sub-Saharan Africa is the only
region where the number of hungry has risen in the last decade. Analysts
are of the view that high food prices will cause an increase in food
security and widespread food crisis in many developing countries. Poor
people in developing countries spend between 50 -80 percent of their
income on food and poor rural households tend to be net consumers of food.
Any increase in food prices reduce food consumption and increase hunger.

The prices of rice, corn and wheat
have all reach record high recently, which is a big threat to the
developing countries. This has been attributed to a number of factors
including climate change, population growth, increase demand for biofuels,
failure to improve crop yield, high oil and input prices, leading to
increase input lost for producers and traders. Speculation on commodity
market and structural problems like underinvestment in agriculture and
infrastructure, the dominance in supply chain of food and agricultural
policies could also push price.

Even though there is no
correspondence between the ever growing populations and agricultural
produces in Nigeria, agriculture remains a crucial sector in the Nigerian
economy. Majority of the rural population depends on agric related
activities for their livelihood.

The appraisal of the past shows
that successive administration had initiated progammes towards ensuring
that food is available, accessible, and adequate for the teaming
population. Unfortunately, the sustenance of these laudable ideas to
fulfill their mandates has remained a dream. Some of these progammes are;
Farm Settlement Scheme and National Accelerated Food Production Programme
(NAFPP), lunched in 1972 by Gen. Yakubu Gowan; Operation Feed the Nation
introduced by the Murtala /Obasanjo administration; River Basin and Rural
Development Authority established in 1976; Green Revolution and the World
Bank founded Agricultural Development Project (ADP) launched by the
administration of Shehu Shagari in 1980; and Babangidia’s Directorate for
Food, Road and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI). Despite the efforts,
agriculture has been constrained by numerous challenges like rural-urban
migration, wavering policies formulation and implementation, insufficient
infrastructure support; poor input distribution system; emphasis on oil
economy; pricing system; over dependence on rain-fed farming; poor
capacity utilization, low investor’s confidence; environmental
degradation; poor access to funds ; poor socio-economic status of farms
and insufficient technological transfer system, corruption and poor
commitment to implementation of agricultural policies Economic analysts
believe that for Nigeria to transform to one of the leading 20 economies
in the world by 2020, an agricultural revolution should be the catalyst to
its industrialization. Besides, the targets of the MDG of reducing hunger
and poverty, sustainable development can only be attained through
increased attention to agriculture, food security and sustainable water
resources development Acknowledging the flaws of the past, to reconcile
the current global food predicament, the present administration led by
president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, took a proactive measure by outlining
agriculture as one of its conceptual practical framework, to be tackled
through the short, medium and long term, in line with his agenda and
vision 2015 of curbing hunger and poverty to improve the lives of 140
million Nigerians. Over N134 billion approved for Agriculture in the 2008
budget is a clear testimony. Recently the Federal Government summoned a
meeting of the National Economic Council and Federal Executive Council for
practical and positive intervention towards eliminating hunger. So far the
intervention has resulted in the release of N80 billion from the Natural
Resource Development Fund for importation of 500,000 metric tones of rice
from and 11,000 metric tones of grains to complement the local output. A 6
months waiver was introduced on import duties on rice a sedative measure
to encourage private partnership. Considering the fact that fertilizer is
an essential input in Nigerian’s agricultural system, the Federal
Government has procured 650,000 metric tones of fertilizer valued at
N64,340,000.00 billion naira for distribution to all the states and FCT at
25% subsidy, with an efficient and effective procurement and distribution
system to ensure non-diversion of the product. As part of the palliative
schemes to keep hunger at bay, the Federal Government has approved the
release and distribution of 65,000 metric tones of assorted food from the
Strategic Food Reserve to cushion the effect of low yield during 2007
season while stoking food items in the Reserves to guarantee the required
level of food security, which goes in line with a view to adopting a
policy of Guaranteed Minimum Price (GMP) of major food commodities. This
strategy will enhance food security through preservation and storage of
items in the rural areas nationwide. Livestock development is not left
just as fisheries production has been promoted in the determination to
address general concern on agriculture in Nigeria. In the crop sector,
government is refocusing on the production of major key crops in which the
country has comparative advantage.

Access to credit facilities by
farmers is one of the major constraints facing agricultural development in
the country of which the Federal ministry of Agriculture and Water
Resources has secured approval for the sum of $39.0 million for Rural
Financing Project to provide credit facilities to small scale farmers.
Because of the importance of land as a factor of production, it is obvious
that the existing land tenure system in the country lacks organization in
terms of documentation, thus rendering land illegally secure as a means of
collaterals for credit facilities. The Minister of Agriculture recently
informed the nation that government has designed templates for the
implementation of Cadastral Survey of the country to ensure the
certification of individual farm land for title deeds and to serve as bank
collateral for access to credit and support services.

Having recognized the importance
of water for farming in particular and human survival in general, the
present administration is set for the rehabilitation of the existing Dams
for the development of irrigated agriculture, some of which are the
Hadejia Valley project, Kano River projects, Middle and Lower Ogun, Lower
Anambra project, Middle Rima as well as other small scale irrigation
projects, which are farmer-managed and also, the continuous monitoring of
surface and under water resources to ensure sustainable operation.
Regarding the danger posed by frequent attack by pirates on fishing
vessels and the restiveness in the coastal region of the country,
government has perfected plans for the implementation of Special
Agricultural Programme in the Niger Delta in line with the master plane.

Considering the agricultural
projects lined up for execution at the federal level, the rest 36 states
and their local government areas including the FCT have been charged to
develop a blue print of their administration, with a passionate commitment
to agriculture with a view of reducing hunger and poverty before 2015.
Nigerians are anxiously counting their fingers to seeing the full
implementation of these policies and programmes, what Nigerians need at
this point is patient and absolute support of the present administration.
If these programmes are implemented without sabotage, in line with the
Rule of Law and sincerity of purpose, Nigerians will have more than enough
food to feed her teaming population.